Pedicab driver charged with rape near Daytona International Speedway

A woman was raped in a wooded lot near Daytona International Speedway by a pedicab driver about an hour after Friday’s truck race, according to a Daytona Beach police report released Monday.

By Lyda Longalyda.longa@news-jrnl.com

DAYTONA BEACH — A woman was raped in a wooded lot near Daytona International Speedway by a pedicab driver about an hour after Friday’s truck race, according to a Daytona Beach police report released Monday.The 27-year-old Holly Hill woman had attended the Camping World Truck Series NextEra Energy Resources 250 race at the Speedway, but became separated from her group of friends, Police Chief Mike Chitwood said.The woman then asked pedicab driver George Brainard of Redi Pedi Cab Co. to take her to the 2600 block of International Speedway Boulevard after he picked her up at ISB and West Road, an arrest report shows. Half an hour later, she was found crawling in the wooded area off the 2000 block of Bayless Boulevard by another pedicab driver who heard her screaming for help, police said. Bayless is directly across the street from a main entrance of the Speedway.“Her pants were down and she was crying hysterically,” said Nicholas Colavito, a pedicab driver from Five Star Pedicabs, located on east ISB. “She told me she had been raped by the pedicab driver.”Chitwood was incensed Monday, saying pedicab companies have created problems for police during the Daytona 500 for years. He said officers have received numerous complaints about rudeness, bad driving and even assaults between pedicab drivers from competing companies, “but nothing like this,” the chief said referring to the rape allegation.“I’m not surprised because it’s not required (by our ordinance) for these people to have a criminal background check or a drug screening,” Chitwood said. “I don’t know if the individual companies do the checks, but I know the city doesn’t require it.”The chief said he can’t understand why the city asks taxi cab drivers to have criminal background checks and drug screening, while not requiring the same of pedicab drivers, especially because they deal with so many tourists.Monday afternoon he asked the city’s legal department to amend the pedicab ordinance to include a requirement that pedicab drivers undergo a criminal background check and drug screening. The amended ordinance will be presented to the City Commission, the chief said.“When they (Redi Pedi) came before the city they said this would be a wonderful thing,” Chitwood said.Five Star owner John Forgione said he does background checks on all of his drivers. He spoke to reporters on Monday afternoon in an effort to separate his company from Redi Pedi. Catherine Figueroa, the owner of Redi Pedi, could not be reached Monday.The woman — whose name is not being published because the case is a sex crime investigation — told investigators that Brainard picked her up about 11:40 p.m. and she told him to take her to the 2600 block of ISB, just west of the Speedway and Bayless. Instead, the woman said Brainard drove to the 2000 block of Bayless. The suspect told the woman that if she gave him oral sex, he would not charge her for the ride, the report shows. The woman refused and Brainard yanked her off the pedicab and pushed her to the ground. The woman tried to crawl away and the suspect grabbed her leg, pulled her pants down and raped her, the report shows. After about a minute, Brainard stood up and again demanded oral sex from the woman, police said, threatening to leave her in the woods if she didn’t give him what he wanted, police said.The woman then crawled away from Brainard and he took off in another direction, the report shows.Colavito of Five Star had just finished taking his last fare of the evening to a parking lot when he heard someone screaming, then spotted the frightened woman on her knees on the grass off Bayless, he said. “She was covered in leaves,” Colavito said. He took he woman to the 2100 block of ISB and contacted a Volusia County sheriff’s deputy. Colavito also told police that he had seen Brainard picking up the woman up at ISB and West about 30 minutes prior to the attack, the report states. He also said he saw an unattended pedicab off the 2000 block of Bayless when he was driving people back and forth, the report shows. “I thought he was going to the bathroom in the woods,” Colavito said.When detectives questioned Brainard, though, he claimed that he was the victim and that the woman was the aggressor, Chitwood said.“He told us that she raped him,” Chitwood said. “When he got to the jail he told them the same thing.”Brainard has a criminal record that includes a charge for bringing a weapon onto a school campus, Seabreeze High School. Only 18 at the time, he pleaded no contest and was given two years probation, according to court records. This time, Brainard, who lives in Ormond Beach, was arrested and charged with sexual battery on a victim 12 years of age or older. He was being held Monday at the Volusia County Branch jail on $25,000 bail.